An appeals court this week upheld a 60-year prison term and a $3 million fine for an Aurora man who was caught with $1.35 million in heroin in one of Kane County’s largest drug busts.

Modesto Alarcon’s appeal argued that police searched his house illegally in the spring of 2014 and that Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler abused his discretion in his sentencing, according to court records.

The court said it was adequately established that Alarcon consented to a search of his home and his detached garage and signed a consent-to-search form that Alarcon later said he did not understand.

Alarcon’s lawyers also argued that the judge abused his discretion and wanted to “send a message” about the dangers of heroin, stating he was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison despite a 25-year sentence suggestion made during a pre-trial conference.

“(The) defendant also contends the trial court placed too much weight on the need to send a message to the community,” according to the appellate court statement. “It is simply not our role to reweigh such considerations and second-guess the trial court.”

Aurora police and federal authorities arrested Alarcon, 46, in 2014 after finding 20 pounds of heroin and $84,000 in cash at his Grove Street home.

During the one-day trial, prosecutors detailed how police and officials were drawn to his home after a suspicious exchange outside an Aurora laundry facility that led to a traffic stop where $190,000 in cash was found within hidden compartments of a Jeep, according to Beacon-News archives.

Alarcon was convicted for unlawful possession of a controlled substance and money laundering in a bench trial and sentenced to prison in February 2016.